


My Wayfaring Stranger

by Twilight_Shadow_Songs



Series: Gotham Romance Trilogy [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman Beyond, DC Universe
Genre: Helena is preggers, M/M, in Gotham Romance, pretty dark at least first chapter is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-03-29 09:40:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3891556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_Shadow_Songs/pseuds/Twilight_Shadow_Songs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack Walker and Jason Todd were two people who should never have crossed paths. And certainly not like this. </p><p>Pain is guaranteed, heartache is promised, happiness is a small possibility. Is a fairytale ending possible?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Broken Toy Soldiers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CampionSayn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CampionSayn/gifts).



“Cockiness will get you nothing but a bruised ego and a nasty situation” 

Bruce had told him that once, and Jason was pretty sure it was actually when he’d been caught stealing the tires off his car. Well, _one_ of the times. Of course, what only he, Alfred and Bruce knew was that he had stolen the fucking tires four times. The fourth and final time was also during when Bruce Wayne had been the victim of an attempted mugging. Jason had knocked the bastards out with the tires. After that he’d been adopted. But Bruce had warned him the second or third time. At the time of the adoption Jason had remembered thinking how good it was that he hadn’t listened.

Now, for the second time in his life, he was regretting not following Bruce’s advice. 

“What do you think we should do with this little upstart my dear?”

“Oh my love, killing him seems best. It is a bounty hunter. Nobody would miss him!”

Normally Jason wouldn’t have let a group of jewel thieves get the better of him, but he hadn’t realized there were four of them. The empty looking blond girl that honestly looked like she hadn’t gotten the memo she _wasn’t_ the ghost in a horror movie about a haunted asylum had distracted him and the sword-wielding black-haired pretty boy had managed to stun him with the hilt, and then creepy girl had injected him with something that made everything woozy. He hadn’t even realized those two were there! And now he was on his back on the floor with the group walking around him like he was some sort of art exhibit or a very interesting bug. And then one pair of feet paused by his head and then the body attached to the feet crouched down over him. It was pretty boy.

“Father, I would suggest you take a closer look at our little friend before trying to kill him, hm?” Fingers brushed against Jason’s hairline and his stomach clenched. With all of his sweat he could bet the cheap dye he had been using to cover the white in his hair during jobs was smearing off of his hair and onto his forehead. And then pretty boy was waving a wallet- _Jason’s_ wallet-in front of Jason’s face. “Don’t you just hate it when people make you carry your bounty hunting license around so the cops don’t grab you for vigilante charges?” Jason’s blood was boiling by this point but he was still only able to glare at the amused face. He might have had a large immunity to a vast array of drugs, but there were still plenty that managed to get him down for a little while. He was always able to get up faster than most, of course, but for now he had to put up with just lying on the floor.

The wallet was snatched out of pretty boy’s hand by the grey haired guy that was apparently the black-haired guy’s daddy. Deep laughter rumbled through the air and Jason was pulled up by his shirt and hung like a limp ragdoll from the man’s fist as he was evaluated. “Hmm...I think we’ll take him. Bruce Wayne’s little problem child. Might yield a good sum. If not, well...” another chuckle and Jason felt like screaming. He was probably going to have to escape at some point because if Bruce cared about him at all, he wouldn’t have been a coma patient for years. These people’s demands would go completely unheeded. 

“Melanie, cover our tracks. Jack, take our new friend here. My love, grab the jewels!” Jason was shoved backward into Jack’s (why was it whenever he got kidnapped it was by someone with the name Jack? God damn) arms. Warm breath gusted near his ear “Sorry about this, Jason” bursting pain erupted on the back of Jason’s head and he fell backwards into a black abyss. And to think, he had actually agreed to go with Terry, Ghoul, Matt and Duke to a movie to celebrate his thirty-fifth birthday tonight after he had finished this job. Ah, well...

 

~*~

 

He woke up with a splitting headache and after a moment realized he was leaning against someone. The perfume was making him nauseous and he moved to push himself away from whoever he was propped against. And then realized he couldn’t. He panicked and jerked his arm against whatever was binding it. He started feeling it give, and then someone grabbed his arm. “Calm down Jason. It was necessary to bind your arms” Like hell he was going to calm down! But it was no use fighting when you felt like a drugged ragdoll and before long he had been subdued and pulled against the guy-Jack he remembered now- and away from the blond girl, Melanie.

Now that Jason was a little more awake, he realized he was in a car and had a coat and hood on, probably so if anyone shined their lights in he wouldn’t be recognized. He could see one hand clearly, tied tightly with string to a seatbelt buckle thing in the seat. The other hand most likely had the same treatment, given the way it felt. Good, he could escape if given the chance.

Something was placed near his face and his stomach roiled dangerously as he caught whiff of the aroma of a hamburger. “Not fucking now” he rasped and buried his nose in Jack’s chest. It was the only way he could get away from the smell that was currently making him feel sick. Being this weak, especially around enemies was the very last thing he wanted. But there was really no choice. At least Jack wasn’t laughing or trying to comfort him or anything. He just put that hamburger back wherever he had gotten it and the smell mostly vanished. A welcome change from the less sane Jacks that Jason knew, to be honest. While Jack Ryder was well and fine, his other personality was not and enjoyed stealing Jason’s jacket to get a rise out of him.

“How did you know where we were, Mr. Todd?” It was the woman in the front seat, the one he was guessing was the mother of this fucked-up family. He blinked and shrugged. “I...sort of keep an eye on the area. More than one person I know wanders...” He rasped and trailed off. It was mostly true. He hadn’t been really been on a bounty that night. It was more a ‘my pregnant adoptive sister is climbing rooftops with her thief boyfriend’ Better to prevent her from getting hurt than risk all of the Wayne family’s collective hell raining down on the Mallory dumb-ass. But he wasn’t going to tell these people that. They might go after Helena. “Who were you looking out for?” Jason kept his lips tightly closed and turned his head back into Jack’s chest. He really felt like he might throw up now and if he couldn’t put his hands over his mouth he’d use the nearest person. Jack on his part shifted away slightly, though he was so big and sitting by the window that he really couldn’t move that far away. 

“Not talkative right now, Jason?” The father guy was talking now and Jason clenched his teeth. He already didn’t like this guy. “Whatever you put in me is playing havoc on my mind and stomach and the smacks to my head isn’t helping” he growled and the man chuckled. “Probably better for us you’re not feeling very well. I’m sure once we get you to the loft and properly restrained, you’ll feel more talkative” Jason’s hands clenched and he remained silent. He had no idea how much restraint this group was going to show Bruce’s Problem Child. Better to err on the side of caution. 

They continued driving in relative silence as Jason gradually felt himself come back of sorts. However, he kept his body lax and limp so no-one in the car could catch on. The car pulled to the side of the road and Jason, who was feeling like a doll being passed between two small children at this point, was pulled back over to rest on Melanie’s shoulder and chest, one of his hands untied and brought to be gripped ( **christ** she was stronger than she looked! Her hands felt like they were about to break the fragile wrist bones between her fingers) tightly in Melanie’s hand in her lap. The other hand was handed a small revolver which she pressed into Jason’s stomach calmly. Jack covered the two in a large blanket and adjusted Jason’s hood. His hands dropped to his side as the flashlight shone into the car.

“Is there a problem, officer?” The guy at the wheel sounded for all the world like he _wasn’t_ currently in the middle of a kidnapping and it was all Jason could do not to snort. He liked his stomach and ribs where they were in his body, thanks. “You realize you were going over the speed limit there, sir?” Jason tuned the idiotic bantering out and began dozing. He was bored and there was no chance of help at the moment because one wrong move more than likely meant getting lethally shot and he didn’t want or need that. Plus, if anyone was going to save him, it wasn’t going to be the useless police. There were currently only four people with badges that he trusted to be competent, and this guy wasn’t one of them.

The flashlight shined into the back of the car and Melanie squeezed his wrist so hard he felt his bones creak. Jason focused on keeping his breathing even so as to not give any indication something was wrong. “These are my three children. My oldest son is visiting from college. We had a wonderful time at the pier and my youngest seems to have fallen asleep” okay, now Jason _really_ hated this guy. He knew he was small because of the massive trauma to his spine from the two weeks he’d endured Joker, but that was just rubbing salt in the wound. 

After a long moment the flashlight moved away from him and after a minute or two the car was driving again. Melanie let go of his wrist and he put it in his lap. That had certainly been interesting. Boring, but interesting. He moved his head up a bit to see if he could see anything outside the window. They were driving by the river. A plan started formulating in his head, he just needed a chance to implement it and get away. The car began slowing down and Jason exploded into action, ripping his still tied hand out of the string while at the same time grabbing the gun from Melanie’s lax hand and throwing it in a random direction. He lunged past her and wrested the door to the car open, leaping out as the four in the car tried to grab him and were shouting. Melanie’s hand caught his jacket for a moment, arresting his leap and causing him to smash into the side of the car before he tumbled wrong. He felt his left leg snap in one area and clenched his teeth to keep from making a sound. Of all the rotten luck, it had to be his leg. 

With his balance compromised he pitched down the sloped bank of the river, bouncing and rolling as he kept his head tucked into his chest and prayed that he didn’t smash his head open or damage his spine so badly he became paralyzed. Jason grabbed a protruding thin metal pipe with one hand to keep himself from tumbling into the river, a high pitched whine escaping his lips as his arm jerked harshly and his gloved hand slipped slightly on the pipe. But he managed to keep holding on and stopped sliding. Jason could bet that the four had gotten out of the car already and he got up to get moving, but fell back over and landed on his right arm wrong on a rock, which snapped that as well. “Fucking shit eating bitch!” he cursed, vision going white for a moment with the combined pain of leg and arm.

Jason took a deep breath and got up more carefully so as not to fall over again. He then began limping in the opposite direction the car had been going in, wishing he could go faster. His main intent was to get to one of his hidey-holes to lick his wounds and call Doc Leslie and maybe Helena to give the family member he didn’t want to strangle after five minutes a warning. The sound of someone clambering down the slope reached his ears and Jason tried to go faster while at the same time not putting too much pressure on his broken leg. His breathing was too loud in his ears, ragged and pain-filled. His head, partially drugged body battered sides, two broken limbs, queasy stomach, oh yea even the great Jason Todd had a limit to what his body could take and he had just about reached it. 

Arms wrapped around his chest and he growled as he tried to struggle out of the arms but his strength was flagging and he ended up just leaning against the body. “Sorry old man!” It was forced jovial and too loud and made Jason flinch. And then Jack was whispering to him again, half panicked, half annoyed and half tired. “Was it worth it? You’ve got two broken limbs now. It would have been better if you had waited for a few days. Me and Mel would have left a window unlocked for you”

Well, _shit_. He’d burned bridges he hadn’t even known he was standing on and was now drowning in a river of his own making. Greeeaaat. Jack very gingerly picked Jason up and walked with him back to the car. Melanie was pressed against the car as her father spoke low, harsh words to her. She was trembling and Jack cursed softly and sped up. Jason passed out as the yelling started. It was like floating. Funny, there was another time when he’d felt like floating too. That one had been after a warehouse explosion.

 

~*~

 

Jason drifted back to the surface of awakeness and rested on a cloud of partial awareness for a while. There was murmuring. And was there someone beside him? Moving one of his arms he found it handcuffed to bars. His good leg had the same treatment. Huh...

_"Look, he’s coming round, he’s waking up!”_

Jason blinked bleary eyes open around the same time that he remembered what had happened. He slammed his wrist against the bars on the bed as he pulled violently at his arm and gave a short, frustrated scream before chuckling caught his attention and he turned to look for the source-and found himself staring into a camera. 

The bounty hunter licked a sandpaper tongue over chapped lips and waggled the fingers of the arm in the case (when had that happened, exactly? While he’d been out, probably and who knew how long that had been) 

 

“Hi Bruce” He rasped.


	2. Break these Shackles of Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> being cuffed to a bed gives Jason too many bad memories and flashbacks.

This was honestly annoying, being cuffed to a bed and not allowed to move without close supervision. It was also really boring. Jason was not a fan of bondage of any sort in any form. It made him anxious and irritable, but he supposed that this could be easily explained as to why. He just hated focusing on that incident, and this was forcing him to. Over and over and over again. 

( **_“Be a dear and tell me what hurts more? Lead pipe to your leg, or lead pipe to your back? Ohh, 'stop’? Alright...Timmy, I guess Jason doesn’t love you!”_**

**_“Jay, Jay why?!”_ **

**_“No...no! Tim I’m sorry!”_** ) 

He woke himself out of the half sleep he’d fallen into by violently jerking at the handcuffs on his wrist and ankle. His wrist and ankle were both incredibly bruised and sore, but the panic the cuffs caused wouldn’t cease. “You have nightmares often?” It was the pretty boy. Again. Jason gave him a death glare and turned his head so he was glaring at a wall. “Fuck off” Every time Jason woke up now, it was to find this guy leaning against a wall and watching him. It was really annoying, and just rubbed Jason the wrong way because the guy just _watched_ him. Though he supposed it was a good idea to post a guard, but did it always have to be the one named Jack? It was like they knew it would bother him and that was why they did it.

Jack snorted and shrugged. “Suit yourself then. Are you hungry?” Yes, Jason was sort of hungry. But he would be damned if he admitted it to this guy. Plus, it was the creepy Silent Hills character that was Melanie who took care of the food. And the feeding, which was in and of itself was really frustrating. But Jason didn’t know what was worse, the creepy sister or Staring Jack. Jason turned his head and kicked his good foot, the kick cut painfully short by the cuff shackled around it. 

“I get bein’ careful, but with the casts I’m not going to go anywhere” if he had had one or the other broken, yes. He certainly would have tried to escape. But with a leg broken and the arm he would have leaned against in normal circumstances also broken, there was no point. He was currently stuck and all that was left to do was to just focus on recovering. But that was pointless when he was too anxious to even sleep properly!

Jack adjusted his folded arms and shrugged again. “You have a reputation, believe it or not” Jason growled softly and leaned over and away from the offending cuff on his wrist, as far as he could without hurting his broken arm in the sling. “I don’t do well with restraints” he said through gritted teeth. There were flashbacks and anxiety and irrational anger and yes, he had actually promised Dick he would try to work on his anger after an incident at a party where he had kicked a hole in a wall. He wasn’t unreasonable, and really was getting tired of paying for property damage he caused. But the longer he was in the cuffs, the more his already volatile anger bubbled closer to the surface. 

He wasn’t aware that Jack was kneeling right next to him till he felt a light hand on his leg. His body jolted backwards, the leg spasming since it couldn’t get away from the hand due to the cuff. “Get off of me!” he hissed and Jack smirked. “Oh calm down. I’m not trying to hurt you. Let’s get the blankets off of your good side and that pants leg shoved up so I can see how badly the bruising and scrapes are” Jason scowled but jerked his head at his leg. “Go ahead then” he muttered. It did hurt anyway. The bruising was that bad from all of his thrashing around in sleep and while he was awake. 

The hand moved from his upper thigh to his ankle and moved the blankets to bunch them beside the pile of pillows the broken leg was resting on. Jack put his hands just under the cuff of the too large pajama pants. Jason was guessing that the pants were Jack’s, actually, which made this all the stranger. Especially because he was moving the pants leg up as though it was the dress of some socialite. The way he was looking intently at his job wasn’t helping the situation, but Jason had never been the type to react to kind of creepy things normally. 

He settled back into the pillows and tilted his head, neck moving back a little. “Oh baby” he groaned, with a grin on his face, wondering what bold little Jack would even do. Jack raised an eyebrow at Jason and grinned for a moment before a sound outside made his face freeze and his hands dropped from Jason’s upper thigh to his ankle. Jason made his face a mask, all amusement gone. Jack’s father burst into the room, his face like a thunderstorm. “What are you doing, boy?” he demanded as Jack hunched his head a little lower and fingers reflexively grasped Jason’s ankle a little tighter, the pain of which caused Jason to hiss. This seemed to snap Jack out of it a little and he straightened up a little. 

“Looking at his ankle. He’s been thrashing around so much in his sleep and complaining about the pain. So I decided to take a look at his ankle. It’s really swollen and bruised, and he has somehow managed to cut it” Jason scowled as Jack’s father roughly pushed the man out of the way, and then flinched when his ankle was grabbed roughly. There was a long pause while the ankle was inspected and then dropped onto the bed again. 

Jason met the glare directed at him with one of is own. “I can’t even walk right, and now I don’t think I can even support my weight on the good foot. I hate admitting this, but...I’m stuck” he had to grit the last bit out between his teeth, seething that he was even admitting this, but it would be worth it if the shackles came off. The man smirked, clearly enjoying the admission before nodding once. “You will be restrained during meals but beyond that I don’t see a reason to restrain you any longer. However, if you try to escape, we will _tie_ you to the bed, do you understand”

Jason grit his teeth but nodded. He would argue the restraints while eating, but even he had to admit letting him hold so much as a spoon would probably be a bad idea for the safety of creepy girl. Or anyone else while he had something in his hands, for that matter. He turned his attention to Jack, who was pressed against the wall and seemingly just waiting. “Food. P-pl-p... _please_ and then get these fucking things off of me!” he wanted them off as long as possible before the next mealtime so getting this one out of the way first was a necessary evil. Jack nodded and slipped past his father, who stared hard at Jason for a few moments longer before turning and leaving. 

The food was, as usual, a peanut butter sandwich, apple slices, and a cup with a straw full of milk. Sometimes it was water, it did vary during lunch. The girl feeding him was, as usual, silent except for random moments of humming or happy murmurs that sometimes escaped, usually when he ate and didn’t try to make conversation. It made Jason wonder if she had always been this way, or if something had happened to her. After every few bites Melanie allowed him to drink a little of the milk and then there were some bites of an apple slice before it was back to the sandwich. It was monotonous and made Jason feel like a child, but there was nothing he could do. 

Eventually the meal was finished and Melanie actually spared him a small smile before getting off of the bed with the plate. She stayed long enough to brush the crumbs off of his chest, but as soon as that was done she was out of the room only to be quickly replaced by her dark-haired brother. “Got the keys. Bet it’ll feel good to get free again, won’t it?” Jason grunted and turned away. “This ain’t freedom, don’t even dare compare it” he growled. The only response was a sigh and calloused hands (Jason guessed from the sword Jack obviously used often) touched his wrist, lingering for a moment longer than necessary before unlocking the cuff and moving the arm and hand to rest on Jason’s lap. “Hey, I can move my fucking arm by myself!” he stated in angry protest. Jack seemed to ignore him and went for the cuff on Jason’s ankle. However, this time there was no lingering and he barely touched the leg. It was almost disappointing. 

But the relief overwhelmed the disappointment Jason may or may not have felt and he curled his leg close to his body and massaged the sore ankle. Being able to move those two limbs freely did wonders for his anxiety and he nodded to Jack in thanks. Jack nodded and left Jason alone as Jason started slipping into unconsciousness again. The food was more than likely drugged, but he couldn’t bring himself to care now that he couldn’t feel metal biting into his skin. He would worry about drugs in his food when he woke up, but for now, a semi-peaceful sleep.


	3. Okay? Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack Walker is a little complex

“You’re going to get found out if you keep staring at him like that” Jack jumped slightly and turned his head to his sister. He was leaning in his accustomed place across from Jason’s bed. Well, _Jack’s_ bed, really. This was his bedroom they were using for the wayward son of Bruce Wayne. Jack was on the couch until the whole ransom thing was done. “Mother and Father hardly pay attention to how I look at anyone” he stated, derisive and almost flippantly. “As long as he is kept an eye on, I don’t think they care” She touched his arm for a moment. “They notice more than you think Jack. Be careful”

He shrugged and sighed. “I’ll be fine, Mel” the blond girl pursed her lips but didn’t say anything and instead focused her gaze on the man sleeping on the bed. “He’s been doing better without the cuffs” she said, and Jack nodded. “Much better. Though there are three good guesses as to why he would hate them” three weeks with Joker, the muttering in his sleep, and the anxiety being tied up or restrained in any way, it wasn’t hard to connect the dots. Melanie nodded in sympathy, and then smiled slightly. “It’s been close to ten days and he hasn’t gotten either a shower or a shave” Jack made a humming sound, lips quirking upward slightly. “Can’t get those casts wet, Mel. You know that” She smirked slightly. 

“If someone helps him, he wouldn’t be getting the casts wet, would he” She stated, and he raised his eyebrow as she gave him a meaningful look. He shook his head. “I see where you’re going with this-and I would _love_ to take advantage of it, but let’s remember he is not a _pet_ , and we can’t keep him permanently” she shook her head slightly and glanced at Jason.   
“He needs one though,” she argued. “A shower and a shave. Dad wants to do another video now that he looks a little better. Good faith policy I guess” Jack ran a hand over his face and sighed. “Would have gotten stuck with it anyway then, you little minx” he said playfully and she smiled. He gently shoved her back towards the door and she laughed a little. It was times like these when she almost seemed like she did before....well, before.

He sidled over to where his desk was and pulled a small key from around his neck to open the locked main drawer on the desk. With his parents gone, and probably for several more hours, Jack was going to take advantage of their absence and partake in a guilty pleasure he knew in other families wouldn’t be guilty. 

Jack Walker had the reprehensible passion for sketching and painting. It wasn’t even hated for not ‘being masculine’ which was a stupid and short-sighted argument he would have almost tolerated. No, sketching and painting wasn’t tolerated in his family because it ‘ _dulled the senses_ ’. His father reasoned that it sharpened the imagination, which led to daydreaming, which led to seconds wasted that Jack wouldn’t have during a heist. His mother pointed out that it got in the way of his fencing, another thing he was passionate about, and fencing competitions had always been a source of income when they weren’t making money on stolen jewels. If he spent all his time on art, he wouldn’t be able to have any time for fencing. 

He hated the arguments because they were selfish, being what his _parents_ wanted and not what _he_ wanted. But, since his parents were often gone, he snuck out a sketchbook and charcoal pencils and a picture from a magazine or a photograph and he would draw it. Since he had been doing this since he found out art was “bad” (which he remembered clearly just after turning eight years old and his father had burned a school art project he’d gotten a flying grade on, and a call from a gushing teacher) his art had gradually gone from cartoon-esque to mostly realistic-though there were quirks that came from being mostly self taught. 

He pulled the swivel chair out from his desk and sat down facing Jason. Jack flipped the book open, though it didn’t take much. His pencil was wedged in there, right next to his reference photo (a candid shot of the cleaner and black-market emperor Klarion with a little girl who looked too much like him to not be related eating ice-cream. Well, the girl was, Klarion had been in the process of shoving his ice cream into some boy’s face when the picture was taken) Jack simply picked the pencil up, tucked some hair behind his ear, and began working once more on his sketch of Klarion and the girl, which was a little bigger than he had intended and perspective slightly off, but otherwise just fine. 

“Didn’t take you for the artistic type” Jack was very glad that the pencil hadn’t been on the page at the time Jason spoke, or he would have given Klarion a mustache the man-boy didn’t actually have. He coughed and snapped his book shut. “Yes, well. Everyone is allowed to be more than one ‘type’ you know” he stated almost defensively. Jason nodded once, actually appearing thoughtful. “True. I could site a few examples” His eyes narrowed slightly. “Like one being I never pegged you for an _admirer_ of mine, either” Jack felt heat rising into his face and he gripped his book tighter. “I should have guessed you weren’t really sleeping. Too peaceful” Jason barked laughter. 

But Jack was also adaptive and used to bullies-hell, in some places he _was_ the bully. Jack settled back on his chair and raised an eyebrow. “But I’m not really an admirer, exactly, old man” he watched with satisfaction as Jason’s face lost the cruel mirth and became stone-faced once more. Jack continued “I do admire you, but it’s more along the lines of a crush I laid to rest many moons ago that turned to respect” Jason regarded him, and Jack liked to fancy the man looked a little taken aback by the bluntness mixed along with the more obvious distrust. Jack almost fancied maybe a small dash of disappointment evident on Jason’s face, but he was just having wishful thinking. Jason ran a hand over his scruffy face and sighed. “I bet I look like a caveman” calculating eyes regarded Jack and the young man shrugged, well aware he was being tested. 

“Not quite, but I would give it three or four more days. A skunk haired caveman” The eyes narrowed. “Oh, ha-ha. Get bonked in the head with a crow-bar and develop heterochromagia. See how funny it is then” Jack just shrugged, deciding there was nothing to say to that. He opened his art-book again and began shading the little girl’s face, being extra careful around her large eyes. The little girl also reminded him of another person he knew, and he figured if he paid extra attention to the girl, Ace would probably appreciate it. Not that he was allowed to talk to Ace anymore, but still. He could always find a way to get the picture to her if he really wanted. 

“What are you working on?” by this point he had started in on Klarion’s crazy hair. Jack looked up at Jason, his mouth open to reply, when shouting erupted in the living room. Jack swiftly opened the drawer and slipped the book inside it, shutting and locking it in one swift movement. He didn’t look at Jason as in the living room Jack’s father berated his mother for embarrassing him. “Nothing” he told Jason quietly before slinking out of the bedroom. 

 

~*~

It was later that night that the subject of the shower and shave came up again, though this time it was by Jack’s father. He had been watching Jack practice his fencing for maybe thirty minutes before breaching the subject. “Todd is filthy” well, Jack supposed his father had never been exactly good at _tact_ , but that was rather direct. Jack slid out of his stance and put his sword down before turning to his father. “You want me to get him clean enough to be presentable and not stink?” The more people kept bringing it up the more Jack began realizing just how awkward the whole thing would be. His father gave him a shrewd look. “Do you prefer hosing him down like some sort of animal?” Jack paused. No, he really didn’t but still...He picked up his sword and sheathed it, pushing past his father as he went to put it away and get Jason.

If Jack didn’t know better, he’d think that his father wanted him to slip up. 

“Hey Jason, want a shower?” he asked as he entered his bedroom and the captive bounty hunter looked up and raised his eyebrow. “Most awkward shower ever, won’t it be?” he asked and Jack shrugged. “Yea, but didn’t you want one?” Jason rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “I was teasing! Yes I want one, but it has been established you are the worst person to give me one!” Jack glanced nervously at the door and then at Jason. “It’s me or being stripped and hosed down. What do you want?” blue eyes darkened with memories and Jason raised his free arm up to Jack, inviting him to pick the smaller man up. Jack did so carefully and was practically cradling Jason in his arms to keep everything from hurting. 

“You are being a pretty good sport about all this” Jack said conversationally to Jason, ignoring the stubble rubbing against his cheek and the arm wrapped securely around his neck. Jason tapped the center of Jack’s forehead. “Memories are difficult to escape from” _oh_. Jack looked around as they were in the living room and then chanced a small kiss to Jason’s cheek. Jason turned his head and stiffened. “Don’t” Jack was mentally kicking himself all the way to the bathroom for that little show of affection and understanding. It didn’t do to fall in love with someone he was not only aiding in kidnapping, but had stated he was over.

 

The shower business actually fairly smoothly. Jason allowed his clothes to be removed and then helped where he could in washing. Jack’s hands never went below the waist although he did help keep Jason steady during this moment. His eyes gazed into blue ones as he shaved Jason and washed his hair. Jack was just glad that the shower head could be removed easily so he could get at the head and body better without getting the arm and leg wet. They were done within an hour, shaving included. 

Jack carried Jason back just as gently as before, the bounty hunter dozing on his shoulder. When he set him down, a hand gently pushed his head back down and Jason kissed Jack’s cheek. “You’re not a bad egg, Walker” he said drowsily, and Jack’s face heated up. He grinned like a stupid fool and promptly left the house so as to get back to normal before anybody noticed.


End file.
